


On the edge

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 23:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: “You have been here all day? Why?” Asked by alwaysandbeyond on tumblr





	On the edge

**Author's Note:**

> Set on: Another take on a scene I really want to explore on Emma truly giving up.

“You have been here all day? Why?”

Emma sighed at the question, her eyes never leaving the dusty road that now, instead of being the limit between Storybrooke with the rest of the world, signaled the outside border of the Enchanted Forest. At least, Regina thought as she glanced at the tall green trees, the one that had sort of sprouted as the realms merged, one next to the other.

It was indistinguishable when asphalt turned into gravel, not where they stood at least, but the picture the road gave to them was definetely different than the one Regina had learnt to link to Storybrooke’s limit. A place, she added inwardly as she glanced back at Emma, at the way the blonde’s hands were closed into fists, her whole body seeming seconds away of an explosion as her veins titillated with dirty white light, that she had learnt to also hate.

“Emma?”

She spoke gently, knowing well that the blonde didn’t like to be pressured and yet, considering the worried look Snow had given her when she had asked for Emma a few hours ago, she felt the need to do so, to ask, to pry. Pressing her right palm on the other woman’s shoulder she felt almost relieved as Emma didn’t move away, her muscles twitching under her fingers however, as she halted.

She had heard the rumors, the mutters about a fight, about accusations being thrown and her name appearing on the lips of that pirate. Pirate who had glanced at her murderously when she had entered into Granny’s dinner, ink still drying on her fingertips and the last of a very long list of meetings still filling up most of her mind. Glancing down, at those closed fists, she bit down her bottom lip and forced herself to not ask about the ring that now laid a few feet away from them, at the other side of that barrier that wasn’t truly there anymore.

“I want to leave.”

It came out croaked, broken. A whisper that hold such a fervent want that made Regina blink, mute, as Emma turned to finally look at her, eyes glistening with unspent tears and red at the edges. It was a look that Regina had already seen on her. A look, the woman thought belatedly as a thunder exploded above them on the, until now, clear sky. A look that had made Regina stop the woman she had in front of her, so she didn’t shoot a gun.

Emma scoffed before she could say a thing and growled, shaking her head once, eyes falling to the earth, to the ring.

“But I can’t do that to Hope, to… Henry. Both of them. To…”

Regina waited but Emma fell silent, a sight escaping through her clenched teeth as she let her shoulders fall, gone the tension that they had been sporting until now. They both knew there was a “you” there, an implicit “you” that they had both toyed with for quite a long time. An implicit, not sot subtextual perhaps, secret they both had already been on the verge on admitting more times than they could truly think of.

Perhaps, Regina thought as she steeled herself, knowing that Emma needed her to be the voice of reason, it was time to break it. Perhaps.

The thought terrified her, her magic crackling between her fingers, dipping onto Emma’s shoulder blades, below the jacket she wore, as she thought of it. At the same time, however, the idea of Emma going away, crossing that line, made her tremble.

“I don’t want you to go.”

It came out quicker than she had expected, a whisper that got carried away by the wind and got lost among the crowns of the trees, another will-o-wisp that would maybe haunt them from there, glowing. It also made Emma shudder as she finally turned fully to look at her, lips trembling as they parted.

“Regina…”

The brunette shook her head. She was tired, she thought as she let her hand fall, purple sparks coloring the air between them as a breeze fluttered by. Tired and fed up.

“I don’t want you to go and I think you know that. For Hope, for Henry, for the family you have created here. For yourself.”

“And what will happen if I stay here Regina? With you up there, on that castle, Queen and not Mayor. With… with my parents there as well, with Henry an adult I can barely know how to talk to, with another Henry who sees me as her mother and yet it was created with a wish? What will happen with me?”

 It had been the longest speech Regina had heard Emma give for a very long time and the brunette fell silent as Emma looked away from her, tears now beginning to fall again, chipped lips pursing, teeth peeking as she bit them, nervously peeling off bits of skin until drops of blood could be seen.

“Everything has changed.” Emma continued, hugging herself, her fingers tugging at the fabric of the battered jacket, scrunching the fabric as she kept on talking, voice growing stronger. “I just want to make it stop.”

“Living through a halted life is not as good as you think, Emma. I know that.”

It came colder than she may have intended it to be but it had the desired effect of dissipating Emma’s anger, her stance changing as she let her arms fall limply at her sides, her magic coating the air with the unique imprint Regina knew was hers. Blonde locks framing her face, limp and dead; Emma seemed younger than she was, sadder and exhausted even as she shook her head and spoke again.

“That’s… not what I meant. I…”

_I love you._

Another not so secret secret they both knew about. Another one they wouldn’t talk about.

“I will be there, Emma, I will help you. With whatever you need. And if you… keep on wanting to cross and move away… I will also be here. But please, let me help.”

She said nothing when Emma picked up the ring, but also remained silent when Emma, nodding softly, accompanied her to the town, right hand shyly brushing against hers during the whole time.


End file.
